What I've learned today

Afirmaciones diaras

• No pierdo el control en ningún momento, respiro.
• Digo siempre la verdad
• Hago una sola cosa a la vez (La esencia del Zen)
• Gasto menos de lo que gano.
• Respiro.
• Miro a los ojos a las personas.
• No aplazo las cosas. Hago lo que es preciso en el momento preciso.
• Se decir "no" con cortesía y presteza.
• No temo a decir "no se" y "lo siento".

Enseñanzas de vida

• No pierdas tu control en ningún momento, respira.
  
• Di siempre la verdad
• Haz una sola cosa a la vez.
• Gasta menos de lo que ganas.
• Eres tal como respiras.
• Miara a los ojos a las personas.
  
• No aplaces las cosas. Haz lo que sea preciso en el momento preciso.
• Aprende a decir "no" con cortesía y presteza.
• No temas decir "no se" y "lo siento".

• Aprende a escuchar, es un arte.
• Disfruta del descanso!
  
• Medita treinta minutos todos los días.
  
• Reconoce tus errores.
  
• Conserva tus amigos.

• No creas todo lo que oyes.
• Descubre placer en lo elemental: comer, respirar, caminar, saborear, tocar, ver, dormir...
• Desecha el odio y el rencor, te hacen más daño a ti
• No tomes decisiones cuando estés sintiendo una emoción fuerte
• No pagues un trabajo hasta que este concluido
• No dudes en perder una batalla, si esto te lleva a ganar la guerra.Di "Gracias" y "Por favor" con frecuencia.
• Se compasivo.
• No digas todo lo que piensas.
• Contempla el amanecer.
• Disfruta la belleza.
  
  - Aprende a guardar secretos
  - No prives a nadie de la esperanza; puede ser lo único que posea.
  - Cuídate de quien no tenga nada que perder.
  - En vez de criticar, elogia a las personas.
  - Hay cosas que no regresan: la palabra dicha, el tiempo transcurrido y las oportunidades.

This is It ("As It is") Short film by John Bolton

Separation is the absence of love, and love is the absence of separation.

                                                                 Ramesh Balsekar

The seach is rooted in the rejection of what is. What we are really looking is the death of the seeker and the plunge into life itself.

Source (Youtube)

Barack Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize 2009

Zurich, Oct 9 In a very surprise development, the US president Barack Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize 2009 for his work in giving the world citizens a hope for the better future. This award couldn’t come at a better time, when he is plagued back home by doubt over his performance from the health bill to other loads of unfinished promises.

According to the Nobel Prize Committee, he has won for its humanitarian efforts in improving the quality of life for all the citizens of the world. He is giving a good signal to the world that the educational institutions and the international relations need to be strengthened.

Barack Hussein Obama was born August 4, 1961 is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office, as well as the first born in Hawaii. Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the president of the Harvard Law Review.

He scored another first of sorts by winning the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize while just a few months in office, not even a complete year in office. The committee’s decision to award him the prize was unanimous and they appreciated his work and dialogue in international diplomacy.

The Platform Sutra of the Six Patriarch of Zen Buddhism

The 6th Patriarch of Zen, Hui-neng (early 8th c. China) made some very profound comments on the Lotus Sutra in the "Platform Sutra" - the only Chinese-origin sutra in the entire Mahayana canon. The Platform Sutra is a medium length work in 57 Chapters. It is regarded as the principal, and indeed the only, sutra of the Zen path, which path generally eschews any reliance upon the printed or written word. Interestingly, the Platform Sutra is reverential and exegetical regarding the Lotus Sutra, devoting a full chapter (42) to commenting upon and praising the Lotus Sutra in the form of a discourse between a visiting priest (Fa Ta) and the 6th Patriarch himself. It is even more interesting that a Zen master, Hui-neng, is so eloquent on expounding the Lotus Sutra, since the Lotus Sutra (nor any other Buddhist sutra) is not considered a venerated text in most Zen traditions.

"The Platform Sutra" - Chapter VI. On Repentance

Repentance in Chinese is comprised of two concepts: To “confess” and to "not do it again”. Is to take the plant and remove the roots, not even allowing a thought to survive enough time to become anything more than a passing cloud.

"The Platform Sutra" - Sutra spoken by the Sixth Patriarch -From Chapter VI. On Repentance

I have a 'Formless' stanza, the reciting and practicing of which will at once dispel the delusions and expiate the sins accumulated in numerous Kalpas. This is the stanza:

People under delusion accumulate tainted merits but do not tread the Path.

They are under the impression that to accumulate merits and to tread the Path are one and the same thing.

Though their merits for alms-giving and offerings are infinite,

(They do not realize that) the ultimate source of sin lies in the three poisonous elements (i.e., greed, anger and illusion) within their own mind.

They expect to expiate their sins by accumulating merit

Without knowing that felicities obtained in future lives have nothing to do with the expiation of sins.

Why not get rid of the sin within our own mind,

For this is true repentance (within our Essence of Mind)?

(A sinner) who realizes suddenly what constitutes true repentance according to the Mahayana School,

And who ceases from doing evil and practices righteousness is free from sin.

A treader of the Path who keeps a constant watch on his Essence of Mind

May be classified in the same group as the various Buddhas.

Our Patriarchs transmitted no other system of Law but this 'Sudden' one.

May all followers of it see face to face their Essence of Mind and be at once with the Buddhas.

If you are going to look for Dharmakaya

See it above Dharmalaksana (phenomena), and then your Mind will be pure.

Exert yourself in order to see face to face the Essence of Mind and relax not,

For death may come suddenly and put an abrupt end to your earthly existence.

Those who understand the Mahayana teaching and are thus able to realize the Essence of Mind

Should reverently put their palms together (as a sign of respect) and fervently seek for the Dharmakaya.

The Patriarch then added:

practice. Should you realize your Essence of Mind after reciting it, you may consider yourself to be always in my presence, though actually you are a thousand miles away, but should you be unable to do so, then, though we are face to face, we are really a thousand miles apart. In that case, what is the use of taking the trouble to come here from so far away? Take good care of yourselves. Good-bye.

The whole assembly, after hearing what the Patriarch had said, became enlightened. In a very happy mood, they accepted his teaching and put it into practice.

Source

Song "Lucky"- Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat

Do you hear me,
I'm talking to you
Across the water across the deep blue ocean
Under the open sky oh my, baby I'm trying
Boy I hear you in my dreams
I feel your whisper across the sea
I keep you with me in my heart
You make it easier when life gets hard

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again
Oooohhhhoohhhhohhooohhooohhooohoooh

They don't know how long it takes
Waiting for a love like this
Every time we say goodbye
I wish we had one more kiss
I'll wait for you I promise you, I will

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again
I'm lucky we're in love in every way
Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed
Lucky to be coming home someday

And so I'm sailing through the sea
To an island where we'll meet
You'll hear the music, fell the air
I'll put a flower in your hair
Though the breezes through trees
Move so pretty you're all I see
As the world keeps spinning round
You hold me right here right now

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again
I'm lucky we're in love in every way
Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed
Lucky to be coming home someday

Ooohh ooooh oooh oooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
Ooooh ooooh oooh oooh ooh ooh ooh ooh

Todo lo que sucede en el momento presente es necesario

Todo lo que sucede en el momento presente es necesario.

El centro  del dilema humano descansa sobre el concepto del tiempo. Mientras persigue su felicidad mítica del futuro, el hombre no tiene tiempo de disfrutar del momento presente. Y de echo, el momento presente realmente no existe, porque para cuando pensamos en el, ya se ha convertido en pasado. Por lo tanto, lo que es vital no es pensar sobre el momento presente sino ser ese momento presente.  Y esto no es otra cosa que la iluminación.

 Ramesh S. Balsekar

Todo lo que sucede es necesario. Vaya koan! Solo por diversión, repite esta frase durante un día entero y observa lo que pasa…

Lineage (Buddhism)

A lineage in Buddhism is a record of teachers and their disciples, or students. Several branches of Buddhism, including Zen and Tibetan Buddhism maintain records of their historical teachers who, according to the traditional history of that school, have passed the Dharma, or Buddhist teachings, from generation to generation in an unbroken line since the time of the Buddha. This vertical line is a lineage of spiritual ancestors, in Zen also called patriarchs, which provides validation of the teachings. In Zen, the experience of satori is also confirmed by the lineages so that the teachers of the present generation are known to have authentic understanding of the Dharma. In the Zen lineage an example is that Bodhidharma is considered the first Zen (Ch'an) patriarch, and the twenty-eighth successor to Gautama Buddha.

What is Zen?

Introduction

“Zen” is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word “chan” 禪, an abbreviated form of “chan’na” 禪那, which is the Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit dhyana, meaning “meditation.” “Zen School” thus literally means “Meditation School,” the school of Mahayana Buddhism that places particular emphasis on meditation as the central practice leading to enlightenment. Its history begins with the methods of meditation taught by Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha, transmitted from generation to generation of Indian meditation masters, and introduced to China by Bodhidharma (d. 528?), a monk honored as the twenty-eighth patriarch of Indian Zen and the first patriarch of Chinese Zen. Also known as the Buddha Mind School and the Bodhidharma School, the Zen school as a distinct tradition first developed in China, underwent centuries of development there, and then spread to Korea, Vietnam, and Japan. In Japan there are at present three main Zen lineages: Rinzai 臨濟, Obaku 黄檗 , and Soto 曹洞.

What is the Rinzai School?

The Rinzai school emerged in China from the teaching line of Linji Yixuan 臨濟義玄 (J., Rinzai Gigen, d. 866), and was first introduced to Japan by the Japanese monk Myoan Eisai 明菴榮西(1141-1215). In Japan the Rinzai teachings underwent further refinement, especially in the lineage of Hakuin Ekaku 白隱慧鶴 (1686–1769), the great reviver of the Japanese Rinzai school. A second introduction of the Chinese Linji school took place in 1654, when the Chinese master Yinyuan Longqi 隱元隆琦 (Ingen Ryuki; 1592-1673) transmitted the teachings as they had developed in China from the thirteenth through the sixteenth centuries. Yinyuan’s lineage came to be called the Obaku school.

Throughout their histories these schools have sought, through the practices of zazen, koan training, and samu, to awaken the practicer to the Buddha-nature inherent in all beings. In the Record of Linji, Master Linji says, “On your lump of red flesh is a true man without rank who is always going in and out of the face of every one of you. Those who have not yet proved him, look, look!” The basic stance of the Rinzai and Obaku schools is the self-realization of this “true man without rank.” This self-realization, called kensho 見性, is regarded as the essence of Shakyamuni’s teaching, and has been passed from generation to generation in Zen, like, as the Zen expression has it, “water poured from one container to the next.”

Buddha Mind School

“Buddha Mind School,” another name for the Zen School, is based on Zen’s view that truth lies not in words recorded in written texts and scriptures, but in the Buddha Mind—the true Dharma—inherent in all beings. This is the mind to which Shakyamuni awakened when he was enlightened, and that his disciple Mahakashyapa, renowned for his practice and discipline, awakened to at Eagle Peak:

One day at Eagle Peak Shakyamuni stood before the assembly of eighty thousand students and simply held up a golden flower. No one responded except Mahakashyapa, who broke into a smile. At this the Buddha said, “I possess the treasury of the True Dharma Eye, the ineffable mind of nirvana, the true form of the formless, the subtle Dharma gate. It does not depend on words and letters, and is a special transmission outside the teachings. This I entrust to Mahakashyapa.”

After Shakyamuni’s passing, Mahakashyapa recognized the same awakening to Buddha Mind in Ananda, Shakyamuni’s cousin and personal attendant. These were the first links in a continuous chain of succession from master to disciple down through the generations to the present day.

The Buddha Mind is none other than our own pure, original mind that is always present, and merely hidden by deluded thought. Many Zen texts from the earliest times describe this:

Hongren (600-674): Just as the light of the sun is never destroyed, but is merely obscured by clouds and mists, the pure mind possessed by all sentient beings is merely hidden by layered clouds of discursive thinking, false notions, and deluded views. Just clearly maintain [awareness of] the mind and do not give rise to false notions. The Dharma sun of nirvana will then naturally appear. Thus we know that our minds are inherently pure.

Huineng (638ｰ713): Huineng said, “Do not think of good, do not think of evil. At this very moment, what is your original face before your father and mother were born?”

Damei Fachang 大梅法常 (752–839): Monks, strive to reach the root; do not chase after the branches. Reach the root, and the rest will naturally follow. If you wish to perceive the root, just see into your own mind. This mind is the source of all, both mundane and supermundane. When mind arises the various dharmas arise; when mind is extinguished, the various dharmas disappear. If you give rise to the mind that is unattached to good and bad, all things are in their true state.

Linji (d. 866): If you will just bring to rest the thoughts of the ceaselessly seeking mind, you will not differ from the patriarch-buddha.Turn your own light inward upon yourselves!

Bodhidharma School

The Zen School is also known as the “Bodhidharma School” because it traces its origins as a distinct Chinese tradition back to Bodhidharma (d. 528?), an Indian meditation master honored as the twenty-eighth patriarch of Indian Zen. Bodhidharma is said to have been the third son of a king in southern India. He left home and studied Buddhism under Prajñatara, the twenty-seventh Indian patriarch, and received from him transmission of the Mind-seal (inka shomei 印可證明), signifying the same realization of Buddha Mind as that of Shakyamuni Buddha. After receiving transmission he made the long sea voyage to China, where he remained the rest of his life spreading the teachings of Zen.

He first visited the land of Liang in southern China, where he met with the great Buddhist patron Emperor Wu. The emperor asked, “What is the first principle of the sacred teachings?” Bodhidharma replied, “Vast emptiness, nothing holy.” “Then who is this that is facing me?” inquired the emperor. “I do not know,” said Bodhidharma. The emperor failed to fathom his meaning, so Bodhidharma went north to the temple Shaolin si 少林寺 (Shorin-ji), where, it is said, he meditated for nine years in a cave facing the wall. He stressed the teachings of the Lankavatara-sutra, which reflected the “consciousness-only” doctrine of the Yogacara school. He is known for his famous verse summing up the essential standpoint of Zen:

          A special transmission outside the scriptures,
          Not relying on words and letters;
          Direct pointing to the human mind,
          Seeing one’s true nature and attaining Buddhahood.”

Bodhidharma is regarded as the First Patriarch of Chinese Zen, and transmitted the Zen teachings through his Chinese disciple Huike 慧可 (487–593).

Source